Grada Kilomba's O Barco Opens at Sesc Pompeia in First Inhotim Partnership
On 22 September, Grada Kilomba's installation O Barco will debut at Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo, marking its first exhibition outside of Inhotim museum. This showcase will be available until 25 October and includes the 2021 installation along with two new works for 2024: the video piece Opera to a Black Venus and the installation Compressed Time. During the opening, Kilomba will converse with Júlia Rebouças. O Barco consists of 134 charred wooden blocks that reflect the holds of slave ships and features poems in various languages, exploring themes of enslavement and memory. Prior to São Paulo, O Barco was exhibited in Lisbon and London, coinciding with Sesc São Paulo's 80th anniversary. Admission is free.
Key facts
- O Barco opens at Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo on 22 September and runs until 25 October
- The exhibition is the first itinerancy of the project outside Inhotim and an unprecedented Sesc São Paulo–Inhotim partnership
- It joins the 2021 installation O Barco with Opera to a Black Venus and Compressed Time, both 2024
- O Barco comprises 134 burnt wooden blocks across more than 220 m², reproducing a 32-metre vessel hull
- Eighteen blocks feature Kilomba's poems in gold, in Yoruba, Kimbundu, Cape Verdean Creole, Portuguese, English and Syrian Arabic
- Grada Kilomba speaks with Inhotim artistic director Júlia Rebouças at the opening
- O Barco previously showed in Lisbon and London and was at Inhotim from April 2024 for 28 months
- Curators are Marília Loureiro and Júlia Rebouças; entry is free at Sesc Pompeia
Entities
Artists
- Grada Kilomba
- Júlia Rebouças
- Marília Loureiro
- Luiz Galina
Institutions
- Sesc Pompeia
- Sesc São Paulo
- Instituto Inhotim
- Dasartes
- ArteRef
Locations
- São Paulo
- Brazil
- Minas Gerais
- Brumadinho
- Belo Horizonte
- Lisbon
- Portugal
- London
- United Kingdom
- England